Boycott Part 1: Boycott All of Buzzfeed's Advertisers. Note Them, List Them, Write to Them Telling Them You'll Never buy Their Products Again Until They Cut all Ties With Buzzfeed.

Gabriel Malor, in his first (I think) column at his new home at Ricochet, wrote about Buzzfeed's unhinged attack -- and subsequent disingenuousness -- on a popular home fix-up show for merely belonging to a church that considers, like most churches do, homosexuality to be a sin.

So Buzzfeed reporter Kate Aurthur wrote a post about popular HGTV hosts Chip and Joanne Gaines which informed the world that the Gaineses' have a pastor who is opposed to same-sex marriage. This post had one purpose and one purpose alone: to harm the couple. The post served no news purpose—even Aurthur concedes she never learned the Gaines’ view of same-sex marriage. The post cannot be termed "activism" since it fails at every level to persuade readers of the rightness of the same-sex marriage cause. Even the most generous alternate topic of Aurthur's post, "Texas pastor opposes same-sex marriage," is as dog-bites-chew-toy as a news item can be. The only conceivable purpose of targeting the popular television couple in this manner was to cost them viewers and, perhaps, their jobs.

To forestall the protestations, there can be no serious doubt that Aurthur specifically targeted the Gaineses as the object of her post. The headline, subhead, and first, second, third, and fourth paragraphs were solely about the Gaineses, their popular HGTV show "Fixer Upper," and the fact that they are (gasp!) openly Christian. Only in the fifth paragraph does Aurthur wander into the question of whether gay people will appear on their television show (like with other HGTV programming), and the rest of the piece is about the Gainses' pastor’s views.

The word for Buzzfeed publishing this garbage is "harassment." Even as Aurthur (and her boss) hide behind a pretense of journalistic standards, there is no journalistic content in the piece. The Gainses cannot be blamed for declining to volunteer themselves as victims for Aurthur’s bullying. After years of contemptuous boycotts and Twitter outrage storms directed at individuals and companies over their views on same-sex marriage, harassers like Aurthur have taught many of their victims -- reasonably! -- to hunker down and say nothing.

I and others have asked BuzzfeedBen if he intends to run an exposee on Keith Ellison's imam's thoughts on gay marriage.

And yes, as Jim Geraghty notes, Keith Ellison's imam does have some specific ideas on homosexuality.

If this social-media-mob-stirring, guilt-by-association, drive-out-the-heretics philosophy is how the game is going to be played now… I'd like the folks at BuzzFeed to turn their attention to Imam Makram El-Amin, leader of Masjid Al-Nur mosque in Minneapolis.

[Suggestions] about creating safe spaces for LGBTQ members aren't welcomed by all Muslims, especially religious leaders. Munhazim says mosques in Minnesota don’t accept openly gay people and he’s been kicked out of mosques in the past. Imams say they take issue with those promoting homosexuality.

"It's not within our paradigm, really, to change the word of God,” said Imam Makram El-Amin, leader of Masjid Al-Nur in Minneapolis.

"Our religion is clear about this matter. It's not a lifestyle that we accept as being part of the natural way of things for human beings. When it comes to that, that’s my position, and that’s Islam's position. And this incident as tragic and terrible as it is that does not change that," he said.

...

Lest you think that was an off-the-cuff, one-time comment from the imam…

The Qur'an is "pretty explicit in the fact that it is saying that this is not a lifestyle, or life choice, that is recognized as legitimate for Muslims," said Imam Makram El-Amin of Minneapolis's Masjid An-Nur. "It is not recognized as being what God intended for humans in terms of their relationships with one another."

You know who worships at the Masjid Al-Nur in Minneapolis, right? Congressman Keith Ellison, now considered a leading candidate to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And from news accounts, the two men are pretty close: "Imam El-Amin has counseled Ellison on religious issues and accompanied him on international trade trips."

I asked Ben Smith if he was going to inquire into this relationship, given that Keith Ellison seeks a post which has far more influence than the Gaines' have -- they only have power over a random couple's backsplash and Open Concept remodeling.

As Buzzfeed would say: Until this point, BuzzfeedBen has refused to answer very simple questions.

Take that as you will.

Find their advertisers and boycott them. Hurt them.

It is folly to treat kindly those who seek to hurt you.

If it's #War, then let it be #War for all sides; this stupid game of restraint by conservatives where we try to convince people to follow our example by acting "better" than they do is pure foolishness, for a simple reason: They are arrogant and think they need to learn nothing more than they knew in kindergarten, and furthermore, they literally believe you to be subhuman.

In what world does someone who thinks you're literally subhuman learn "lessons" from you by observing your behavior and then imitating it?

Most of us want the Peace State. I know I do.

But it is foolish in the extreme -- foolish to the point of delusion -- to continue insisting that a tactic that has a long, long track record of simply not working at all -- acting as if one is in the Peace State when one's enemies have decided to attack you -- will lead to the Peace State.

No. Continuing to unilaterally disarm ourselves will lead to further attacks.

If you want to be in the social-war Peace State -- as most do -- then one must, as one must do in real life, temporarily go into the War State to punish one's enemies until they are willing to discuss terms and themselves move to the Peace State.

Weakness in the face of aggression is provocative.

Weakness in the face of unceasing harassment is volunteering for this treatment.

To treat kindly those who treat you cruelly is to make oneself an accomplice in one's own debasement, denigration, and subjugation.